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With the news breaking over 17-year-old Bristol Palin’s pregnancy, politicos, pundits, and strategists are grappling with how to spin, unspin, and in general how to react to the situation.

I’ll leave that to other commentators, but the whole situation made me wonder about Bristol’s mom, presumptive GOP VP nominee Sarah Palin’s position on sex education.

In a 2006 gubernatorial questionnaire, Sarah Palin said she would not support explicit sex-ed programs.

3. Will you support funding for abstinence-until-marriage education instead of for explicit sex-education programs, school-based clinics, and the distribution of contraceptives in schools?

SP: Yes, the explicit sex-ed programs will not find my support.

Also, I wondered what kind of sex ed curriculum existed at Wasilla High School, the high school that Bristol previously attended (she took a leave of absence for 4-5 months for “prolonged mono” during her junior year and then transferred to a high school in Anchorage), which is also Palin’s alma mater.

When asked what type of sex curriculum existed at Wasilla, Assistant Principal Mark Okeson said the school has a health curriculum that includes a sex education component. When asked whether the curriculum was abstinence-only, Okeson said, “I’m not sure…I don’t believe so. This subject has not come up for a long time. I don’t believe we have an abstinence-only course.”

He said he believe that the school strives for a sex-ed curriculum that is “middle-of-the road,” and added, “I would assume that contraception would be a part of any health curriculum.”

He said he didn’t believe the school was receiving any federal funding for abstinence-only programs.

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